ALBUQUERQUE, NM — Just in time for Valentine’s Day, new greeting card displays have arrived at the Main Post Office. Busy consumers can buy, stamp and mail a valentine or other greeting card while conducting other Postal Service business.
The Main Post Office located at 1135 Broadway Blvd. is one of 400 select locations now offering cards under a year-long pilot program launched last fall. By the end of March about 1,500 Post Offices nationwide will offer greeting cards.
“Greeting cards are a great way to let someone know you are thinking about them,” says Postmaster Catherine Rodriguez. “I think our customers will like the convenience of having greeting cards right at the Post Office, where you can buy a card and drop it in the mail in one stop.”
More than half of the 7 billion greeting cards sold in the U.S. are sent through the mail. This pilot program will help the Postal Service to determine if customer interest is high enough to expand the program to other Post Offices around the country, says Rodriguez.
In addition to valentines, the greeting card assortment includes cards for birthdays, baby announcements, encouragement, sympathy and wedding anniversaries. Seasonal displays will offer cards appropriate to various holidays and times of the year, including Mother’s Day, Father’s Day and graduation.
Greeting cards join a selection of shipping and mailing products at Post Offices designed to better meet the needs of busy customers. In addition to mailing tape and packaging, special decorative mailing boxes make sending gifts easier than ever.
According to the Greeting Card Association, Valentine’s Day is the next most popular time to send cards after the winter holiday season. The most popular everyday cards are birthday cards, followed in popularity by cards celebrating anniversaries, and cards of encouragement, including get well, friendship and sympathy cards.
A special edition CD, “Love Letters From Ella,” featuring 10 classic love songs by Ella Fitzgerald, is also available during February at many larger Post Offices and online at www.usps.com/shop.
“At Valentine’s Day or anytime of the year, let someone you know are thinking about them,” says Rodriguez. “Send a card. It’s important, and this makes it easy to do.”
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Please Note: For broadcast quality video and audio, photo stills and other media resources, visit the USPS Newsroom at www.usps.com/communications/newsroom/welcome.htm.
A self-supporting government enterprise, the U.S. Postal Service is the only delivery service that reaches every address in the nation, 150 million residences, businesses and Post Office Boxes. The Postal Service receives no direct support from taxpayers. With 36,000 retail locations and the most frequently visited website in the federal government, the Postal Service relies on the sale of postage, products and services to pay for operating expenses. Named the Most Trusted Government Agency five consecutive years and the sixth Most Trusted Business in the nation by the Ponemon Institute, the Postal Service has annual revenue of more than $68 billion and delivers nearly half the world’s mail. If it were a private sector company, the U.S. Postal Service would rank 28th in the 2009 Fortune 500.
